A worker walks through a construction site where work remains suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 coffins discovered on the site three months ago. County officials believe that as many as 4,500 indigent residents were buried there about 100 years ago. less

A worker walks through a construction site where work remains suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 2 of 7

Construction continues on a building next to a site where work has been suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 coffins discovered on the site three months ago. County officials believe that as many as 4,500 indigent residents were buried there about 100 years ago. less

Construction continues on a building next to a site where work has been suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 7

A worker walks through a construction site where work remains suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 coffins discovered on the site three months ago. County officials believe that as many as 4,500 indigent residents were buried there about 100 years ago. less

A worker walks through a construction site where work remains suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 4 of 7

Construction continues on a building next to a site where work has been suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 coffins discovered on the site three months ago. County officials believe that as many as 4,500 indigent residents were buried there about 100 years ago. less

Construction continues on a building next to a site where work has been suspended at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 5 of 7

Image 6 of 7

Work remains halted on a construction site at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 coffins discovered on the site three months ago. County officials believe that as many as 4,500 indigent residents were buried there about 100 years ago. less

Work remains halted on a construction site at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, May 18, 2012, until a judge approves an order to remove about 100 coffins discovered on the site ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 7 of 7

Old graveyard was forgotten by most - but not all

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Moments after a judge adjourned a hearing in his San Jose courtroom Friday and stepped away from the bench, Mark Marchu, a 57-year-old retired truck driver, held his baseball cap in hand and stood up in the gallery.

"I was hoping to say something, your honor," Marchu said.

Marchu's 78-year-old mother-in-law had asked him to address the court on behalf of her dead grandmother, as well as the other 1,454 people believed to be buried beneath a San Jose hospital parking lot - the occupants of a potter's field that dated from the 19th century and had long been forgotten.

For now, it's unclear what will happen to the majority of the corpses discovered outside Santa Clara Valley Medical Center during an excavation for a new building. In February, workers stumbled upon 15 unmarked pine boxes, and old maps soon revealed there were probably hundreds more.

It turned out to have been a paupers graveyard used from 1875 through 1935, the final resting ground for those who died at the hospital and were too poor to afford a proper burial, officials said.

In the 1950s, hospital officials who had either forgotten about the cemetery or ignored it signed off on a parking lot on the site. The graveyard, about two-thirds the size of a football field, was paved over.

Now the hospital wants to put a services building there. On Friday, Cain allowed Santa Clara County officials to remove 100 coffins in construction's path, and ordered them back to court in November to discuss whether there's a chance any of the remains can be identified and returned to families.

That's unlikely, hospital officials believe. Many of those in the cemetery wound up there because they had no relatives to claim their bodies, said spokeswoman Joy Alexiou.

Archaeologists will open the 100 coffins, Alexiou said, and if there's no family identification, the remains will be cremated in accordance with state law. Officials have ruled out DNA testing, saying it's ineffective on bones that old.

Not everyone forgot about the cemetery. Marchu said his wife's family has long known about the graveyard and suspected their family matriarch, Anna Cardenas, was buried there in 1915 after she died of pregnancy complications.

Marchu said Cardenas and her husband arrived in the United States after an eight-month voyage from Spain. They settled in San Jose, where they picked fruit for a living.

For years, Marchu said, his mother-in-law has tried to locate the remains of her grandmother. She even went to the hospital in the 1970s, explaining to officials that a cemetery was in their backyard. Officials dismissed her story because maps showed no record of the graveyard, Marchu said.

On Wednesday, hospital officials publicly acknowledged the graveyard's existence, and Marchu said his mother-in-law felt vindicated. Then she asked him to make a special plea to the judge.

Marchu said that rather than move the bodies or cremate the remains, his family hoped the county would acknowledge them with a bronze marker and by planting an orchard above them, lush with fruit trees that once covered the valley - cherry, apricot and plum.

"They were forgotten once," Marchu said of the people buried in the graveyard. "Now that we've found them, let's not forget them again."

Cain thanked Marchu for his time and his thoughts, then re-adjourned the hearing.